Originally posted by prototism
If the sun just disappeared, I think the gravitational effect would be instant, and without "the hub", I think the Earth would just go flying off at
a tangent to the last point of gravitational contact on its orbit. Whether or not it would be a "straight" or "arced" trajectory, I can not say.
Regardless of trajectory, we would die from the cold, cosmic radiation (I think), and probably many other things.
Yep. If the Sun exploded (which it does all the time, really), its mass would still be there for a while until it dissipated, warping spacetime with
gravity, and we would continue on our merry way for about 10 minutes, or whenever the first blast wave hit. It would be traveling at less than the
speed of light, so we'd see the explosion first, approximately 8 minutes and 18 seconds after it happened, then we'd have to wait for the shock wave
to pound and fry us to a crisp.
If the Sun just magically "vanished" somehow, then its mass would be gone, and we'd immediately sail out of our circular orbit on a straight line
from whatever we were when the sun vanished -- like a hammer throw in the Olympics. We'd continue to see the sunlight for about 8 minutes and 18
seconds, then everything would go black except starlight. No more planets to be seen, since that is reflected light. After that, it would probably
only take a few days to a week for everything to die.